Fall is great time for craft beer drinkers. The beers turn darker and often more complex in flavor, and the beautiful fall weather in the Midwest makes outdoor festivals which often involve beer a pleasure to attend. Of course the classic fall beer fest is Oktoberfest, which I covered last year, see my history of Oktoberfest and its beer here and my Oktoberfest beer reviews here.
In America we have our own holiday to cap the end of Harvest season and festivals to celebrate it, that quintessential American holiday is Halloween.
In colonial days pumpkin was commonly used to make beer. In America pumpkins grow like weeds, so it’s no surprise that pumpkins found their way into beer, since barley and wheat were not readily available. Pumpkins were not used for their flavor, instead the starches in pumpkins converted readily into fermentable sugars. Once wheat and barley became highly available the pumpkin beers fell by the wayside. But the pumpkin became a core symbol of America. Along with corn and apples, pumpkins are symbolic of Fall in America. So this year I am going to cover Pumpkin Ales, invented by the American craft brewers and tied to that fun and great American holiday -Halloween.
As I said Pumpkin beer disappeared in America by the mid 1800s. But of course it was the craft beer revolution that brought pumpkin beer back. In 1983, Bill Owens opened the first brewpub in America, Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward California.
Actually in 2018 his brewpub was inducted into the Smithsonian American History Museum as one of the most historic brewpubs in America. Like all the early craft brewers, Bill was a creative guy who loved experimenting with beer. He ran across a recipe for pumpkin beer in the letters of George Washington, and was intrigued. Bill started growing pumpkins and began to brew beer with pumpkins in fall of 1983. In 1984 he bottled the first pumpkin ale in America, America’s Original Pumpkin Ale.
As brewers know, pumpkins impart little flavor to beer, it’s actually the cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices that give pumpkin pie its flavor, and it’s the same with beer.
So Bill Owens and other craft brewers focused on the spices and soon a style emerged with a rich malt backbone, lightly hopped and richly spiced and pumpkin beer was born. This uniquely American craft beer style became a Fall favorite. So try some of the best, which we review this year, and cheers to Pumpkin Ales and to a great American Holiday.
Cheers uncle! Nice article and love this time of year as the beers get darker (like you said)